DISTRIBUTECH International 2020

John Kochavatr
Chief Information Officer
Portland General Electric


John Kochavatr joined Portland General Electric (PGE) as Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer in 2018. He enables PGE to serve safe, reliable, and affordable electricity to its two million customers by driving information technology and digital strategies and solutions across the enterprise. He leads a team of more than 600 people to help decarbonize and electrify PGE’s service territory. Kochavatr’s entrepreneurial leadership style encourages his team members to take calculated risks and put forth disruptive strategies with the goal of bringing about innovative change. Prior to joining PGE, Kochavatr served as Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer at General Electric (GE) Water & Distributed Power from 2012 to 2017. He served in various CIO and IT leadership roles across several GE divisions, including Energy, Aviation, Oil & Gas, and financial services. He has extensive experience building and leading shared services teams, from acquisition integrations and divestitures to global enterprises such as SUEZ, SwissRe, and Berkshire Hathaway, in addition to various industrial business. Kochavatr started his career at early stage start-up ventures in online education and supply chain consulting. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.

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